Today, February 6th 1664, Sultan Mustafa II was born ✨🤍
Mustafa’s childhood passed here. While he was in Mora Yenişehiri with his father Sultan Mehmed IV in 1669, he took the first lesson from Mehmed Efendi at the bed-i besinele ceremony. The writing teacher was famous calligrapher Hafiz Osman. In 1675, he and his brother Ahmed were circumcised and his sisters Hatice Sultan and Fatma Sultan were married. The celebration lasted 20 days 🖊️🤍
During his reign the Great 🇹🇷 War, which had started year 1683, was still going on. After the faliure of the second siege of Vienna, year 1683. The Holy League had captured large parts of the Empire’s territory in Europe. The Habsburg armires came as far Niš 🇷🇸 before being pushed back across the Danube. Sultan Mustafa II was determined to recapture the lost territories in Hungary 🇭🇺 and therefore he personally commanded his armies. He set out from Niš 🇷🇸 with a large Ottoman Army to campaign against the Holy League 📃🖊️
First the Ottoman navy recaptured in Island of Chois after defeating the Venetian fleet twice in the Battle of the Oinousses Islands, year 1695 and in the Battle of Chois, also year 1695. June 1695, Sultan Mustafa II left Edrine for his first military campaign against the Habsburg Empire. September 1695, the town of Lipova 🇷🇴 was captured. Also same month, same year, Venetian Navy was again defeated in the naval victory of Zeytinburnu. A few days later the Habsburg army was defeated in the Battle of Lugos. Afterwards the Ottoman Army returned to the capital. Meanwhile, the Ottoman fortress in Azov was successfully defended against the besieging Russian 🇷🇺 forces
April 1696, Sultan Mustafa II left Edirne for his second military campaign against Habsburg Empire. August 1696, the Russians 🇷🇺 besieged Azov for the second time and captured the fortness. Also August 1696, the Ottoman troops defeated the Habsburg army in the Battle of Ulaş and in the Battle of Cenei. After these victories the Ottoman troops captured Timişoara and Koca Cafer Paşa was appointed as the protector of Belgrade 🇷🇸 Afterwards the army returned to the Ottoman capital ✨
June 1697, Sultan Mustafa II left the capital on his third military campaign against Habsburg Empire. However, the Ottoman Army suffered a defeat in the Battle of Zenta and Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Paşa passed away in the battle. Afterwards the Ottoman signed a treaty with the Holy League. The most traumatic event of his reign was the loss of Hungary 🇭🇺 by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 🗡️
Yet if Ottoman power seemed to wane one side of the empire, this did not mean that Ottoman efforts at expansion ceased. In 1700, for example, the Grand Vizier Amcazade Hüseyin boasted to a recalcitrant tribe residing in swamps near Baghdad that they ought to abide by the sultan’s rule, since his grasp extended even to their marshy redoubts. The Grand Vizier added that, after all, Mustafa was “the Lord of Water and Mud! 💫🤴🏻
At the end of his reign, Mustafa II sought to restore power to the Sultanate, which had been an increasingly symbolic position since the middle of the 17th century, when his father Sultan Mehmed IV had signed over his executive powers to the Grand Vizier. Mustafa II’s strategy was to create an alternative base of power for himself by making the position of timars, the Ottoman cavalrymen, hereditary and thus loyal to him. The timars, however, were at this point increasingly an obsolete part of the Ottoman military machine 🤍💫